Dwight

I have never noticed it making any difference as far as the shape is concerned . . . but the holster will definitely be a bit more firm coming out of a hot box. My hot box is very similar to Lobo's . . . but I have 3 bulbs in the bottom . . . May God bless, Dwight

The Bible book store I got my last one from . . . used a machine such as you describe. They simply loaded in the name . . . warmed it up . . . pressed it onto the Bible . . . and the name was there. Still there some 35 years later. May God bless, Dwight

Not sure how the OP did it . . . I do mine so that it is in a place where the gun does not touch the leather . . . and it can be tricky. May God bless, Dwight

Several years back . . . in a Tandy shop . . . a fellow came in wanting someone to make him a wallet. The manager sent him over to me as I just happened to be there. The story was his daughter had bought him a wallet some 25 years before . . . it was now worn out . . . he needed as near as possible an exact replacement. I looked at it . . . saw it was very simple . . . we agreed on the terms . . . he unloaded the wallet and gave it to me for a pattern . . . and away we went . . . the finished product was sent to him a couple weeks later . . . and I got a very pleasant thank you note from him. This is the "practice piece" I did just to get the feel of it. It is a trifold . . . couple of pockets on each side . . . with a bill holder in the middle. May God bless, Dwight

Much better there Cyberwolfe . . . May God bless, Dwight

Looks good partner . . . is that 1/2 inch or 3/4 inch wooden dowel you used??? And how long is it?? May God bless, Dwight

Looking fwd to the picture. May God bless, Dwight

I really cannot comment on the Outlaw . . . but I've had a Tipmann Boss for over 15 years . . . and it has pretty much done all I ever wanted it to do. I can also make another comment . . . which pertains easier to me because of location . . . when I've had a problem with it (twice) . . . I laid it in the passenger seat . . . and two hours later, I'm standing behind Ben . . . he is fixing the problem . . . and I'm back on my way. Your location will not work for that . . . but they are solid on fixing any problems that arise. The worst problem I've ever had with it . . . it does not like to go around circular corners . . . never figured out why . . . it just doesn't . . . and sometimes the back side of the stitching is a bit less than optimal. It's great for holsters . . . dog collars . . . knife sheaths . . . but belts can be a pain if you have a shoulder problem. Put it to prayer . . . let the Lord help you with the decision . . . that actually is my best piece of advice. People ask me if the Lord is my steering wheel or my life preserver . . . I claim He is my GPS . . . gives me the directions before I get there. May God bless, Dwight

On a question of "How To" . . . How do we get rid of the pictures of the junk yard up at the top of the screen . . . and get some useful and decorative leather work pictures in their place?? If this were Sanford and Son . . . I could understand it . . . but this is a leatherwork forum . . . not a showcase for derelict mechanical junk. May God bless, Dwight

Mom taught me that trick 65 years ago. It still works too. May God bless, Dwight

Those are not cracks . . . they are wrinkles . . . they are produced by the bending of the leather. Getting it fairly wet with water that first time you bend it will alleviate some of it . . . but also using a thinner leather will also make a big difference. The thinner leather will not wrinkle as bad. You may skive the area that bends . . . do that on some practice pieces . . . it may be your ticket. Also you can bend it around a dowel . . . slowly and incrementally making the dowel smaller each time . . . pulling it around by the loose end . . . rather than just bending it over the piece. BUT . . . wrinkles are part and parcel to leather and leather work. It proves your work was not done in wool, cotton, or plastic . . . May God bless, Dwight

Instead of carving it . . . do a control C of the pic . . . paste it into a MS Word page . . . and print the page. Use waxed paper and a ink jet printer . . . and if I remember the process correctly . . . you then just transfer the wet ink to the leather . . . rub it with a rag . . . till you see there is no more ink left on the wax paper . . . you are done. NOW . . . I'm going from memory . . . did it 10 or so years ago . . . check out the internet for better directions. You WILL GET a really nice image if you take your time. I did my son's face on a piece of leather . . . was really good. OR . . . if you don't want to do that . . . print it on white paper . . . use school latex glue to glue the paper to the leather . . . then use a wood burning tool to trace and add the lines to the leather by lightly burning it. Make sure the burner is turned low . . . and take your time. It also produces a beautiful image if you are patient as you do it. May God bless, Dwight

A. Make sure your two edges are exactly 90 degree cuts . . . and as near perfectly straight as you can make them. B. Contact cement the edges together C. I would (for a simple quiver) use a much simpler stitch pattern than Garypl used .. . . just a simple XXXXXXXXX stitch straight down the seam. D. To help insure it stays together . . . I'd put my shoulder strap attachments at the top and bottom of the seam . . . with a 3/4 inch or so wide strip running down the outside . . . with the ends of it becoming the anchor points for said shoulder strap. For garden variety pratice arrows . . . nothing needed . . . but for my broadhead arrows . . . each one goes into a separate plastic tube liner. May God bless, Dwight

Chris . . . the easy way to do this . . . forget about the 7/8 oz leather you would have used. Get some really good 3/4 that is closer to the 4 side. You make two sheath blanks . . . mirror cut from each other. The piece with the hair side out . . . inlay your snake . . . sew him in place . . . . then contact cement both together and from that "one piece" continue making your sheath just as you usually would. I regularly make 6 shooter holsters this way . . . and when done. . .the nice thing is they are really sturdy. AND . . . you don't have to skive anything here . . . May God bless, Dwight

Rivets are usually put in cheap stuff . . . so it won't come apart. They don't put in a welt . . . so the knife cuts the stitches . . . voila . . . it comes apart. SOooooo they put a rivet in there to keep it together . . . and your knife drags across the rivet . . . dulling it faster than skinning two democrats. Nahhhh . . . no rivets . . . put in a good welt to protect the blade . . . that is the American way. May God bless, Dwight

Looks good from here. Revolvers . . . especially in western rigs are really OK with home grown models . . . semi-autos in CCW rigs are a different story . . . but it CAN BE done. Hang onto that model . . . word gets out . . . you may be Mr. Chiappa . . . May God bless, Dwight

I use a concoction of 50 % by weight . . . pure bees wax and 50% by weight . . . neats foot oil. Not the compound . . . the real OIL. I put it in a jar . . . suspend the jar in a pan of hot water . . . it melts the beeswax . . . they get melded together . . . Rub it on the leather . . . polish . . . you'll like it. It's a 100+ yr old recipe . . . add more oil if you want it a bit softer. I've made and use both. May God bless, Dwight

I only make and use . . . two pieces of 7/8 veg tan . . . cemented together so hair side is out on both sides . . . and sewed . . . Or a folded 7/8 piece sewn at the top . . . it becomes a money belt. Don't do anything else. May God bless, Dwight

Let double down on hating to put work into something that won't be appreciated. I built a very pretty bag for a young lady once as a wedding present. Spent many hours on it . . . getting it right . . . picking the colors, the leather, the accouterments, etc. Several months after the wedding . . . I got a strange email from someone I'd never met . . . asking me about the bag. She had picked it up in a flea market. Yeah . . . it still aggravates me. If someone had done that for me . . . if nothing else . . . I'd a put it away in the attic . . . just so I could honestly tell them I still have it . . . May God bless, Dwight

This is an easy one . . . take a look at the drawing . . . it pretty much explains it all. The only difference I make . . . instead of 5 holes for adjustment . . . I give them 7 holes . . . gives room to lose more weight . . . or have another slice or two of pizza. Oh . . . and the distance from point B to the end of the belt is 9 inches for my belts. Some make it a bit longer . . . some cut it down. I think it makes a better looking belt that way . . . May God bless, Dwight

In truth . . . we do live in a very small world . . . Europeans have lots of relatives here . . . we have lots of relatives there . . . most of which do not know one another . . . I read one time that if you knew all of the friends of all your friends . . . to go out 26 generations of friends knowing friends . . . you would know everyone in the world. Sobering thought . . . But like you . . . I think it would do a lot of good if we all could see better the roots that make us who we are . . . physically, mentally, and emotionally. Racism and bigotry would take a serious nose dive if a lot of people actually knew ALL of their ancestry. The perfect example is one of the most racist bigots ever . . . Oprah . . . who claims she is super glad that two DNA tests proved there is no white people in her ancestry . . . but I've got news for her . . . she did not get that lighter skin tone by not going out in the sun. There's a white boy or two back there somewhere in her makeup . . . May God bless, Dwight

I have successfully cut wet leather . . . just make sure the edge will somehow not make any super difference. That would be if that edge were sewn over another . . . or braided . . . or sanded . . . But the best idea is to make a template . . . get your size and dimensions that way . . . it's good and good for you. May God bless, Dwight

Me too even . . . on the DNA from Ancestry.com . . . my wife's was basically England with a tad from Irelend tossed into the mix. Mine hit the Heinz 57 . . . but the funny part was I was always told German, Dutch, English, Irish, and Native American. Ancestry nixed the German and Dutch . . . added East Med (Israeli or close by) . . . French . . . Scottish . . . Nordic and way over in Eastern Europe . . . I'm planning on getting some good stories once i'm walking the streets of gold . . . find them all and get the fact line on what went down . . . But thanks again . . . on the book . . . Ebay had a paperback for 6 bucks delivered . . . it'll be one of my "lavatory library" tomes . . . May God bless, Dwight

Not sure which one . . . but if my cousin was here . . . she could probably look in one of her books and tell ua how Walter Prescott Webb is related to us. . . . and which cousin he is . . . lol. One of the great things in my "Webb" family is the two threads that seem to run rampant thru the family . . . wanting to know how something WAS done . . . or wanting to know how to DO something for the first time. This one was a past tense chaser. But, thanks . . . I'll have to check that book out . . . I'll probably like it even if it didn't have the Webb moniker on it. May God bless, Dwight